Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The government will impose a moratorium on recruitment of civil servants with exceptions for certain positions or professions, a minister said.

"We will temporarily stop recruiting civil servants, not totally stopping it. We want to remain imposing the moratorium but with certain exceptions," Minister for Administrative Reforms E.E. Mangindaan said here over the weekend.

He said that while imposing the moratorium, the government would still continue to recruit civil servants for the needed functional professions such as medical workers, teachers (to be assigned at regional divisions) and other field workers.

The minister said that the moratorium would be imposed as part of the government efforts to put in order the composition, distribution and competence of civil workers.

Mangindaan said that his office and other relevant ministries were studying the plan to impose the moratorium. The study will be carried for one or two weeks ahead.

"We will prepare the concept of the moratorium. I think it would not take too long to finish it, about one to two weeks," he said.

The moratorium according to plan will be imposed for one year in the first place beginning in 2011. If the composition, distribution and competence of workers could be put in order in one year, then the moratorium could be lifted.

The number of civil servants in 2003 was about 3.7 million but it rose drastically to 4.7 million in 2011.

Although the percentage of civil servants against the number of population is still moderate, namely 1.98 percent, yet their composition, distribution and competence are still problematic, according to the minister.

Apart from that, the other problem is that expenditures for civil servants in the budget are still over 40 percent in 396 districts/cities.(*)

(A014/HAJM)

Editor: Ruslan Burhani
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